I was at a house party last night and around 3am Peter suggested we have coffee. There was some Carte Noire instant, and Peter said “that coffee was written about on Velvet Liquid”.
I replied “What’s Velvet Liquid?”
well of course this is Velvet Liquid! I’ve neglected this blog so much I didn’t even recognize it’s name.
oh well, I’ll keep posting in the future!
People can be snobby about instant coffee as much as they like, but when it comes down to it; coffee is sometimes drunk for the caffeine hit. And a damn good caffeine hit at that.
Instant coffee is generally made from low quality Vietnamese Robosta, to which an arabica coffee flavour is added. An enourmous quantity of coffee is brewed in an enourmous vat, which is then freeeze dried. The “Freeze dried” bit means something like; the coffee changes state instantly, and the water in it is never steam. I’d be glad if somebody with more scientific knowledge could correct me.
I appreciate good coffee; from an espresso machine, a cafetiere or even an Ibrik. But that is when coffee is being drunk for pleasure, when a caffeine hit is needed, and needed quickly; instant coffee is the answer.
When making an instant coffee, at school or in the morning, I like to add around 3 to 4 tea spoons of sugar to cover up the bitterness. It seems to do the trick well and make a “supercharge” drink. I can last nicely up until 3:25 PM on only 3 hours of sleep on such a drink.
So don’t turn your nose up at instant coffee. Drink for porpose not for pleasure. One should never enjoy a cup of nescafe, but be thankful for the benefits of it.
On a final note; If you end up buying instant coffee, I’d recomend “Carte Noir”, it’s 100% Arabica (Which I think is a waste for instant), so it’s much more palatible, and with sugar; you’ll be able to sip without cringing and feel the brilliant effects of caffeine. All of course, brewed in less than 30 seconds.
It’s not so often that I write about tea, but to me it is still something quite important. Rooibos tea is fairly different to any other teas I’ve tasted before. Looking below you can see the difference clearly between the leaves. Rooibos is very red.
When brewed, Rooibos is however quite hard to tell from Black Tea.
Rooibos tea is sometimes marketed as “Red Brush Tea” or “Red Bush Tea”. It is high in antioxidants and I guess that means it’s good for you. I would suggest drinking without milk and adding a little honey.
I have decided that I am going to start selling Chocoshock on an online store. This will be chocoshock.tk. Before you rush over there, you’re probably not going to see anything at all until my exams are over.
The Chocoshock store will stock:
They’ll also be a “create your own” bit where people can select the chocolate they’ll use, (Dark, Milk or White), the coffee they’ll use probably (Mocha, Colombian, Santos & Java and Espresso) and they grind (Turkish, Fine, Coarse or Whole beans).
I think that I’m going to use Lindt chocolate, either that or I will source from another high quality supplier.
This is early days, I’m not so sure yet, so we’ll see how it develops. Tell me what you think!
You would have to drink around 6.5 gallons of coffee in one sitting to get enough caffeine to die from an overdose.
thanks to CCafe at Coffeforums for that one
I have recently come across a new line of “coffee”; instant capuccino, Instant mocha and Instant espresso. You just add hot water, stir like mad and hey presto- you are left with a tepid looking drink similar in appearance to Milo.
I personally find this pretty disturbing as it’s simply leading customers into thinking they’re purchasing something they’re not. Cappuccino is 1/3 Espresso, 1/3 Steamed milk and 1/3 foamed milk. Espresso is a process pushing steam through coffee at a high pressure. How this can be packed into a sachet, I do not know!
Whilst doing this the people producing the so called “coffee” like to make it worse with slogans such as “enjoy coffehouse coffee at home”. I”d personally beware of any magical, instant coffee drinks. In order to try and imitate the flavor, they probably include ingredients like hydrogenated oils and possibly even high-fructose corn syrup – ingredients not conducive to a long and healthy life. What’s more, it simply isn’t coffee for that matter.
Need to pull an all nighter? Need a sharp energy buzz? Let me introduce to you chocoshock.
Last night I had the privelidge of appearing on an American talk show, thus meaning that I had to be up all night. It’s easy to take a couple of espresso’s in the morining, but what happens when I become tired in school? How can I get a caffeine fix at school? Well I decided I would try creating some chocolate covered coffee beans. So I headed to the shop, bought some chocolate buttons, melted them and mixed with some beans.
These particular beens were Lavazza espresso blend, and Lees best friend Peter said that they were quite good. But however an aquired taste.
So now I’ve got my thinking cap on! I think it may be a good idea to use some lighter roasted beans, maybe even green for more caffeine. Please people experiment and tell me what you think.
The beans are created by melting chocolate and stiring beans into it. The mixture is then put on some tin foil and spread out. It’s then put in the freezer and should be broken up when hard.
